


Martin: A Model Assistant

by idareu2bme, kristsune



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Asexual Jonathan Sims, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 01, and tim finds the photos, i love tim stoker, jon's curiosity gets the better of him, martin used to model, things go about as well as youd expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 18:37:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21141350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idareu2bme/pseuds/idareu2bme, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: Tim finds Martin's old photoshoot, and makes everyone appreciates model!Martin the way he should be.





	Martin: A Model Assistant

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, So. This all started thanks to me finding Harvey Guillen, (and then finding his instagram) thinking he would be a wonderful face cast for Martin, and then yelling at Sam about it... and then we yelled at each other about it. This is what we came up with.
> 
> All photos referenced in the fic can be seen [here](https://kristsune.tumblr.com/post/188312077164)
> 
> Edit: There is now lovely art for this!! Which can be seen [here!!](https://idareu2bme.tumblr.com/post/188599183856/holy-shit-they-drew-our-baby) It's absolutely beautiful and y'all should check it out!!

Martin pinched the bridge of his nose while holding in the sigh that was threatening to escape. It had been a long day of online searching and awkward phone calls as he chased after leads that were, at best, weak. He could feel a headache coming on. Sometimes he would stop to wonder how anything he did at this job could possibly have monetary value to the institute at large, but that was likely one of those questions best left unasked. He’d like to think that he was helping people who had gone through traumatic experiences find some closure, but nine times out of ten --no,  _ forty-nine  _ times out of _ fifty _ , the work he did came up with few results and was of no help to anyone. So, suffice to say, it was hard to stay motivated on difficult cases. 

The sound of Tim suddenly sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth from his desk across the small room had Martin tensing. He leaned back in his office chair, eyes wide and heart beating wildly. 

“Oh... my…  ** _Martin_ ** _ ! _ ,” exclaimed Tim, not taking his eyes off his computer monitor.

Martin fisted his hands in anxiety. His mind was already sifting through all sorts of horrific scenarios that may lead to Tim’s sudden outburst and, in their line of work, it was a long and colourful list. 

“Y-yes?” asked Martin, finally finding his voice.

Tim’s head shot up from his monitor and he...  _ beamed _ at Martin. His eyes were bright and his smile was wide if not a little bit crazed. Martin’s dread switched course and he was filled with a new sort of trepidation. The absolute  _ glee _ on Tim’s face was definitely not something to be trusted.

Tim’s outburst caught Sasha’s attention and she pushed off from her desk to roll across to Tim on her office chair. It was rare that all three of them were in office at the same time in the afternoon --someone was usually out looking into some lead for whatever statement they were researching, but apparently the planets had aligned that day.

“What’s all this… HOLY  _ SHIT _ !” exclaimed Sasha. 

That didn’t bode well.

Tim made a ‘come here’ motion with an enthusiastic flap of his hand. Martin took a deep breath and pushed away from his own desk and got to his feet. He had to stomp his left foot a few times before walking because it had fallen asleep. 

“What’s going on?” asked Martin as he came around the side of Tim’s desk. He bent down to look over Sasha and Tim’s shoulders at the monitor. His heart stopped at what he saw.

_ Oh. Oh no.  _

People weren’t supposed to see those, especially not coworkers, especially  _ especially _ not Tim and Sasha. Martin bit back a whimper as Tim slowly scrolled through the webpage featuring photos of Martin in various outfits and, well, states of undress. He could practically  _ feel _ Tim’s delighted joy radiating throughout the entire room -- the bastard.

“I... uh… th-those are fairly old,” was probably not the first thing that should have come out of Martin’s mouth in reaction, but that’s what had. 

“Do you mean there’s new ones?” asked Tim, turning wide eyes onto Martin, his expression eager and...  _ hungry? _

Martin winced.

“Uh, no,” said Martin.

“Too bad,” said Tim, turning back to the monitor but not before giving Martin a quick look up and down which... actually should have been difficult and looked rather awkward from such close range, but Tim had a natural talent for all things flirtatious.

“Martin,” said Sasha softly, there was awe in her tone. “These are amazing.”

Martin could feel his face heat at her simple praise. His mouth was pulling uncomfortably and he wasn’t sure if he was frowning or smiling, but it felt foreign and he fought with himself to put it back to something more neutral.

“Damn, just…  _ damn _ ,” said Tim, the last one coming out almost guttural. 

He had stopped scrolling at a photo of Martin sitting on a white bed in nothing but knee-high socks and thick-rimmed glasses, a big, fluffy, white comforter strategically placed. 

Martin bit his lip. He knew what he looked like in that photo, all coy and contemplative, but he also remembered what was actually going on when it was taken. The two didn’t line up. He took a moment to be impressed with how skilled photographers were in getting the photos they wanted --especially from someone so inexperienced at posing for photos as him. 

“Tim!” laughed Sasha in mock outrage as Tim right-clicked and saved a few of the more ‘scandalous’ photos. Really, they were all of them quite tasteful, but Martin had still felt rather exposed.

“What!” exclaimed Tim. “He’s hot! Daddy needs some bedtime fodder.”

“Oh Gawd,” whispered Martin.

He felt a strange mix of humiliated and proud as Tim and Sasha continued to look through and react to the photos. He had never thought of himself as particularly attractive and had always been rather insecure about his size. He remembered thinking it was some sort of joke when he had been approached by an acquaintance back in uni asking if he wanted to model with her for one of her upcoming photoshoots. He would have completely blown her off except that she said it would pay. He always needed the money.

“You look so good in these,” said Sasha. 

“Y-you think so?” asked Martin, biting his lip again to keep his mouth from falling back into the weird frown-smile from before.

“I don’t want to embarrass you, but...yes,  _ lord yes _ , these are  _ gorgeous _ ,” said Sasha. She paused and cleared her throat like she was trying to be a little less enthusiastic. Martin felt something warm expand in his chest. “Really nicely done.”

“Thanks, Sasha,” managed Martin. 

Sasha patted his arm and smiled up at him.

“You’re something of an enigma, aren’t you Mr. Blackwood,” she said with a wink before rolling back over to her own desk. “Anyway, I need to call that museum before they close at 4.”

Martin smiled over at her, taking a moment to be thankful to have her as a coworker and, if he wasn’t being too presumptuous, friend. The moment was ruined a millisecond later when Tim exhaled loudly and reached back to smack his hand into Martin’s chest.

“Martin, Martin, Martin,” he said. 

“What?” 

“...leather,” exhaled Tim in much too lecherous a tone.

Martin rolled his eyes. 

“Stop! Stop! I’m already gay!” exclaimed Tim, covering his face dramatically with his hands, but opening his fingers to keep looking.

“Is that a reference to something?” asked Sasha from her desk, phone in hand.

“Get some culture, Sasha!” said Tim, before going back to scrolling slowly through the photos and saving almost every single one to his computer. 

“I’m going to get back to work,” said Martin shaking his head and patting the back of Tim’s chair before he turned to go.

“Wait, no!” exclaimed Tim, swiveling around in his chair to give Martin a pleading look. “You have to tell me about this! Marrrtiiin! You have so many secrets! I had no idea!” 

“Yes, well, I’d like to keep my secrets, you dirty man,” said Martin around a small smile. He was feeling a touch bold after Sasha and Tim’s reactions to the photos. 

“Oh, _ meow _ ,” said Tim with a flirtatious grin before turning back to his computer. “But Martin! Look at youuu! Look at--  _ Oh damn, look at you _ !”

Martin sighed.

“What now?”

“This! This! … _ Martin _ , I must say, as a bisexual man of wide-reaching, but  _ refined _ taste, this is an excellent,  _ excellent _ photo,” said Tim with more than a little enthusiasm to his voice.

Martin returned to Tim’s desk and looked at the monitor over his shoulder. His face pinked at the photo and his memory of it being taken. It had been one of the first ones they had taken and he had felt ridiculous and embarrassed and all sorts of self-conscious at the beginning of that particular set. But the models he was posing with had been so nice and everyone’s words of encouragement had been rather burgeoning. By the time that particular photo of the group had been taken, he had finally gotten into some sort of ‘character’ and was actually having… fun.

“That’s it, I’m only one man, I can’t… Martin! I caaaan’t!” exclaimed Tim. “ _ You sexy beast _ .”

“Shut up, Tim,” laughed Martin. 

“I’m making it my computer background,” said Tim. “I need to look at this masterpiece every single day.”

“You’re what?”

“It’s happening!”

“Tim… no… that’s… please don’t,” said Martin, his embarrassment returning. 

“Too late!” said Tim. “It was on the internet, it’s fair game. That’s the thing about erotic photos, Martin. Once they’re taken, you never know where they’ll turn up.”

Martin pursed his lips as Tim leaned back in his office chair and shrugged at him looking like a right twat --not that Martin would normally ever say that outloud, but...

“Tim, you tw-- wait, how did you even find those photos anyway?” he asked with sudden realization. “What could you possibly have been searching for in order to come across them?”

“Just doing my monthly fellow employee googling,” said Tim with a grin. “I like having something new to feed the office gossip gods.”

“You’re saying that if you search my name, those come up?” said Martin, his mood falling right back to dread.

“Well, not on the first couple pages, mind you,” said Tim. “But we’re researchers, right? We must pride ourselves on entering the correct mix of key search words.”

“He specifically searches for scandalous photos of everyone in the archives,” Sasha said. Martin looked over at her in disbelief. She was covering the receiver of the phone --must have been put on hold-- and giving Martin a look of shared annoyance over Tim.

“And you were the first one to have anything so tastefully  _ sexy _ ,” said Tim, happily.

“What do I win?” deadpanned Martin

“My undying  _ captivation _ ,” said Tim, drawing out the words and punctuating them with a terrible eyebrow wiggle.

“Lucky me,” muttered Martin before forcing himself to get back to work.  
  
  
  


* * * *  
  
  


Jon sighed as he walked by Tim’s desk. He tried to not be too hard on the assistants, but there was a line to be kept. 

“Tim, you know you are allowed to have free reign with your computer, but  _ please _ try and keep the backgrounds at least moderately professional. We don’t need another incid-” Jon paused mid sentence as he actually looked at the photo on Tim’s desktop. “Wait - is that  _ Martin _ ?” 

The thump over at Martin’s desk told him the answer before Tim even had a chance to smile gleefully up at him. 

“Why yes it is, boss! Our Martin is multifaceted, and  _ very _ talented.” 

A muffled, “Tim  _ please _ ,” came from where Martin was still face down at his desk. 

“Come now, Martin, we talked about this.” Tim turned back to Jon. “The entire shoot is  _ fabulous _ . Why he’s working here, rather than modeling full time is beyond me.”

Tim kept going on about Martin’s shoot, but Jon had already checked out. He was still trying to process that  _ Martin _ looked like  _ that _ . It wasn’t that Jon thought that Martin was unattractive in his everyday attire, but it wasn’t a thing that he ever really  _ thought _ about. Martin was just…  _ Martin _ .

When Tim finished his praise for Martin’s talent, Jon excused himself and went back to his office and shut the door. He thought he heard a faint snicker from Tim when he did, but Jon just did what he usually did when he heard Tim’s laughter, which was ignore it. It was probably about him anyway.   
  


The first thing Jon did was pull out his laptop to try and get back to work. He had his own research to do. And he did. Going through statements, and cross referencing notes. It took longer than it normally would have because every few minutes Jon’s thoughts kept drifting back to the picture on Tim’s desktop. Tim had said there was a whole photoshoot. Jon couldn’t keep the questions that popped into his head at bay. Were they all like that one photo? Were there any with just Martin? Were there different outfits? How did he look in them? 

After reading the same sentence on the police report in front of him for the fourth time, Jon knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore it anymore. He would have to search for the rest of the photoshoot. He felt guilty about it. It was Martin’s private life, and judging by his reaction earlier, he obviously felt rather strongly about it. But Jon couldn’t ignore the questions any longer. He had to  _ know _ . He also knew his curiosity tended to get him into trouble, but there was nothing for it; he wouldn’t be able to concentrate until he found it.

Now, Jon wasn’t the best at anything involving computers, but he eventually found the photos through some trial and error, and Tim… Tim was not wrong. Martin was absolutely  _ lovely _ in every picture. He was soft, and open, and seemed more confident in those pictures than he ever was in person. It was difficult to reconcile the person he knew with the one staring back at him from his screen. 

Jon tried searching for more, but it looked like there was only the one shoot. He only felt slightly guilty for saving them onto his personal laptop. But they were…  _ very _ aesthetically pleasing. They were  _ art _ . There was nothing wrong with appreciating tasteful photography. These ones just also… happened to feature one of his assistants. 

It was days later, and Jon was  _ still _ admiring said art (currently it was the one where Martin was lying on his stomach and staring right at Jon; he always had a hard time pulling his gaze from that one in particular) when there was a quick knock on the door and Martin himself walked in. Jon quickly shut his laptop with perhaps a  _ bit _ more force than necessary, and felt his cheeks heat. 

Martin gave him an odd look, but started talking anyway, “I brought your tea, and I snuck some biscuits on there. Everyone needs a little extra sugar in the afternoon. Well, even more than what’s in the tea.” 

Martin smiled, and it was nothing like the expressions he had in the photos. Jon had seen that smile dozens of times, soft and pleased, if slightly nervous. And he realized in that moment,  _ that _ smile, the one Martin had for  _ him _ , was better than any of the looks he gave the camera in those photographs. It was genuine and  _ real _ , in a way that staged pictures couldn’t capture. They were still nice to look at, but Jon felt like maybe he would try paying better attention to the Martin in front of him, rather than the one on the screen. 

Jon gave him a small smile. There was no better time to start than the present. “Thank you, Martin. I… I think I could go for something sweet.”


End file.
